Thursday, October 27, 2011

Soccer

Today I told Lillers that I posted a "wanted" ad seeking someone to teach me soccer. I am a noob at soccer, and I want to find someone to teach me, until I am good enough to play in a recreational league.

Lillers said, "How did you pick soccer?"

"I asked the personal trainer [whose service I bought for 2 hours from groupon] for any sport that I could actually become good at."

Lillers said, "That's so sad." but she said it in a loving way.

No one answered the ad for five hours, and I got depressed about it. I figured it was a foolish idea, and I've missed the boat by not having been on a sports team as a child.

But just now, one person has answered the ad, and I am immediately filled to the brim with excitement! I am imagining a movie montage where I learn feints and run down the field kicking the ball.

It is my great hope that I could actually become good at a sport. Not just be allowed to play because it's a co-ed team and they need women. Or permitted to play for 5 minutes when the gap between scores is so great that I couldn't affect the game. But actually to be a valid contributing member of a sports team, where people are glad that I showed up because it increases our chances of winning.

6 comments:

Swede here. We play, hrm, football from the day we can walk. It is such a great sport for so many reasons, it's a team sport, there is room for everyone and (slightly dependent on your playing level) a secret trick that makes you wanted in any team.

First of all, don't worry about learning it, there is really very little to be taught. Sure, you need some grasp of the rules but they are really simple. Also it can be worthwhile to get someone to tell and show that there are two ways of kicking the ball, to pass with the inside of the foot and to shoot with the ankle stretched.

Other than that, find some people to play with and play and play and play. Also, don't forget to pass the ball.

Finally, the secret trick. It's actually much easier to stop others from playing than playing yourself. By this I mean that if you keep running and chasing the opponents you are effectively making it much harder for them to play and your team mates will love you. Just keep running.

I would recommend tennis. The nice thing about tennis is you can still play it when you're older and no longer as athletic. If you play consistently, older tennis players can keep up with younger players because the have more tennis skill. I'd say soccer is more of a young person's game...

Wait a minute, I could teach you this. I was a decent soccer player in my youth.

Mostly you need:- running endurance (you get this by practicing a lot of sprinting)- agility and coordination (you get this from practicing moves)- fearlessness (like for heading the ball; you get this from doing it over and over)

I would recommend you skip the one-on-one lesson & just join a league. Ian roped me in to Ultimate last season because signing up with a girl guaranteed him a spot in the league. I went in thinking my sole purpose was to fulfill the co-ed status since I never played team sports outside of gym class as a kid and thus believed I would never be a valuable contributing team member. Turns out I managed to keep up just fine & made a few goals & key blocks. Point is: I think you will do better than you think if you just jumped right in! But at least find a league that is beginner-friendly if you're really concerned. The league I joined was incredibly supportive of newbies so that helped boost my confidence in playing.

About Me

I live in San Francisco. I am the founder and CEO of Evertoon. Previously I was CTO of Minted, cofounder of Google Desktop, founder of Google Lively, and an engineering leader on Gmail Ads and Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have an awesome little brother. My name is pronounced like "Vivian" with N's.
I'm on twitter at twitter.com/niniane.